Doctor Calls For Relocation Of Nations Capital To Curb Annual Accra Floods.

A Public Interest Advocate, Dr Ernest Kwarko, has called for the possible relocation of the National Capital from Accra, to a higher ground. This, he believes, could immediately reduce the impact of the perennial Accra floods by about 50%. He made this proposition in an interview, on the sideline of a radio programme on NyansapO,OTEC FM, in Kumasi.

“I know that people’s hair will stand on end with this proposal. It wasn’t an easy political decision to make, when the Capital City was moved from Cape Coast to Accra.

” The Obstetrician Gynaecologist suggests, however, that a split-relocation approach should be adopted, where the Administrative Capital is relocated and the Political Capital maintained in Accra.”Government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies should be moved to say Koforidua, which is on a high ground. This automatically reduces the pressure on Accra in terms of Government Business Population, and in-migrant population. ” Dr Kwarko stated.

The Public Interest Advocate, who does not usually lose the opportunity to comment on issues bordering on Public Welfare, said he took a cue from the many get-away meetings, conferences, seminars, and workshops that are held in Koforidua by Government officials, corporate bodies, and political parties; a case in point being an ongoing Household Registration unto electronic database in Koforidua. Koforidua is the Eastern Regional Capital, and it is currently within an hour’s drive from Accra, even with its not so good road linkage. A 3 lane dual carriage road constructed to link the 2 cities could shorten travel time to about 20 minutes. A 2 to 3 year pre-location planning period, would make it possible to lay out the ‘Flower City’ into about 5 concentric geographic and economic zones.

This would enable city authorities to control city expansion and central city traffic, while controlling in-migration and getting all the engineering right. Accra Metropolitan Authority, on the other hand, could then have enough breathing space to build drains, carry out well planned demolitions and relocation of squatters on water ways, and decongest Accra slums.

Dr Kwarko expressed apprehension, at the seeming lack of lessons learned from the disaster that struck Accra last year, from the triplets of Filth, Flood, and Fire; and hoped that Dr Alfred Vanderpuyje ,the AMA boss, would use part of the 750ml USD China Shenzen sister city grant, to fix annual Accra floods, once and for all !